My name is Emma Jay, I'm currently living in Brooklyn, NY. In the Epicenter of this shit! Staying inside has been difficult as peoples panic starts to de humanize people. I am not allowed back into the place I was living in the beginning of March for a series of reasons mostly revolving around leaving too often. I was leaving to buy food for my partner who was living in his car who didnt have foodstamps or a job due to this crisis. Many people who moved here have fled the city back to their hometowns, luckily we are able to stay in a friends room while she is in Portland. Until now we have not been able to properly isolate ourselves as we have been at the whim of peoples panic and have had to be on the move to find a safe, secure, sanitary place. Which we are very lucky to have now, many do not have the same fortunes as us. These pieces were created during this time of chaos and worry.
I have a slight obsession with rats and how comparable they are to humans. I see them as a useful, powerful symbol to show the destitute structures we live in and the human subjugation to these structures. Anyone struggling at the bottom of the social caste system picks off the remnants of what remains from the upper class/high society, while being shamed for their destitution. Rats are feared, rats are nauseating, rats are diseased, unwanted, untouchable, unimportant lives. While what they actually are, are smart, creative, creatures doing what they must to survive in the filth of humans. They dig through our trash they live in forgotten places, in the underground of the city, they survive. Such as those struggling who are made to feel ashamed in our society.
These pieces are going towards a project I am putting together, but I think they are relative to the situation now, and I'd like to share.